January 2022 – RMST 202 Blogs

January 29, 2022January 31, 2022

The Shrouded Women

The Shrouded Woman takes on a super naturalistic approach to death as the main character (Ana Maria) lays deceased, yet she takes her audience through her most important past events in her life. What stuck out to me with this story was the many failed loves Ana Maria had experienced throughout her life. She points out the men she has loved in her life- Ricardo, her sons, and Antonio- and how her love towards them was never returned to her in the way she desired. I will first touch on her relationship with Ricardo- this was her first love as a young woman. Since they were both young, it was more of an infatuation/obsession sort of love. However, Ricardo chose to pursue his opportunity to study scientific farming, which broke Ana Maria as he rejected her idea that she would move with him. Because of this, she felt betrayed and unwanted by Ricardo, as she felt that she would do anything for him, and for them to stay together, but he was not willing to make those sacrifices as well. Then there is Antonio- Ana Maria’s husband. Her love with Antonio was always being held up to standards with her love for Ricardo- to which she felt did not ever meet her expectations of how the love between them should be. She feels there is a lack of passion between the two. Another contributing factor as to why she felt less passion with Antonio was because Antonio split his focus between his wife, as well as his love for other activities. This point is illustrated on page 225 when the narrator states, “She realised she was, she had always been, only one of Antonio’s many passions, a passion circumstances had shackled to his life. He tolerated her, that was all;” This made me question why Ana Maria stayed with Antonio, if she did not get what she felt she deserves? Was she willing to accept the love she didn’t deserve in fear of being alone? Ana Maria felt that she had to suppress her love when it came to the men in her life that mattered most to her, Ricardo, Antonio, and her sons. “For it would seem that not to love too much might be the best proof of love which can be given to certain people.” Over the years she had adapted her ways of showing love and affection towards her husband and sons in a way that they wanted, but not in the way she felt she wanted to express her love for them. It seems like she was having to make the majority of the adaptations for the people around her, without them returning the favour.

January 23, 2022

Aragon, Paris Peasant

This week’s book really threw me for a loop. Throughout the story, I was trying to question what I was reading in hopes of understanding the story, and the meaning behind it all, but most times my thoughts came up blank. My understanding was that Argon’s goal was to emphasise the idea of surrealism, but I was unsure as to why he decided to not have a plot. I think that because there was no plot, I was having trouble following along with his messages of surrealism, therefore, his goal was not met in my opinion. I also found myself trying to pick up on background stories or information about some characters that made an appearance, but was unable to really do so. Does anyone else feel the same way? Also, another thing that made it difficult for me to read this book was his elevated word choice that I believe he used to help create a picture in the reader’s mind but for me, I was unable to create a picture of what he was describing. Trying to follow along to a story when you don’t understand a portion of it was quite frustrating at times. This could also be due to the fact that because this book was quite boring to me, I found myself becoming quite distracted and daydreaming about other things, which took my focus from the book. I was able to make some connections however with this book and Combray in the fact that their ideas were greatly detailed. For example this quote from Paris Peasant, “Blond resembles the stammerings of ecstasy, the piracies of lips, the tremors of limpi waters. Blond takes flight from definitions down a wayward path where flowers and seashells meet my eye.” (40) Had very descriptive words to describe the shade of blond. However, I found this word choice quite confusing as I was unable to create a picture of what he was attempting to portray. In Combray, Proust put great detail into his story that it was easy to picture in my head what his surroundings were like. The difference with this story is that even though there is lots of detail, due to my lack of understanding of the plot in general, I can’t seem to create a picture in my head of what this author is talking about. Overall, I think that to help me better understand the author’s ideas, I would have needed a storyline to follow along with, therefore I would be able to look further into the story to the message the author was trying to portray.

January 14, 2022

Proust “Combray”

This week’s reading was a bit difficult for me to fully understand the message around the story. For my blog post this week, I decided to focus in on the message surrounding the authors desire for affection from his mother, and memories.

A big theme for the story was the idea of memories. Proust touches on many memories pertaining to his childhood, with emphasis on his time spent in Combray. A reoccuring theme in the story that really stuck out to me was his desire to gain attention and affection from his mother. He describes his anxieties surrounding his bedtime, as it was unclear to him whether he would receive a bedtime kiss from his mother- something that brought great importance to him. I believe this desire for attention and affection grew from the lack of it he received daily in his household. He seems to long for the intimate moments he can share with his mother- a place where he feels comfortable showing vulnerability, especially when it comes to emotion. He relies heavily on his mother for attention as his father seems to believe that he can deal with his anxieties himself, without always relying on his mother. I feel that heightened Proust’s anxieties even more as he felt he did not always have someone to turn to in times of stress, which eventually builds up those feelings more and more until he is unable to hold them in any longer.

Another core memory Proust touches on is the madeleine and tea that brought him back to his childhood in Combray. He describes the taste of the madeleine bringing him back. I found his description of how the madeleine brought him back to his childhood interesting because he has seen these madeleines many times throughout the years, but it is not until he tastes one that he is brought back in time. He emphasizes on how senses such as taste and smell stick with you throughout your life “like souls, remembering, waiting, hoping…” Which I think is an interesting view he has on his own recollection of memories. However, unlike his memories about his anxieties surrounding affection from his mother, the madeleine brought him joyful memories that he was able to reminisce on his time spent in Combray.

Throughout this reading, I wondered if everyone or almost everyone would be able to recall a certain scent or flavor that brings them back to a certain time in their past.

January 11, 2022

RMST 202 INTRODUCTION

Hello Everyone!

My name is Sophia Cinelli and I am a second-year student, majoring in psychology and minoring in sociology. I am from Vancouver BC and I really enjoy skiing and hiking.

I decided to take this class as I am interested in romance literature and assumed that is what we would be learning about. Upon further investigation and our first lecture, I realised that most of our readings were not based on romance. However, it made me realise how this class will give me the opportunity to branch out from my typical genre of books. I am excited to start the readings for this class and intrigued to be reading books from all over, ones that I probably would not discover on my own. I think this class will introduce me to a wider range of literature, to which I have had little to no exposure to before. I am hoping that after this class, I will have sparked an interest for literature that is out of the ordinary- ones I don’t usually read. I am most excited to read Bonjour Tristesse, as I feel that one may be the most related out of the list. However, I am sure there will be some I come across that surprisingly intrigue me as well.

The outline of this class is one I have never encountered before. Being able to pre determine your grade and then work within those guidelines eases some anxiety and will help with my learning as it takes off a lot of pressure.

During the “Inventing Romance Studies” lecture, I was able to pick up on how romance studies is not tied to any particular place in the world, and as Prof. Murray states it is “deterritorialized.” I find it interesting that Romance studies itself does not come from a particular area, however, phenomenon such as romance languages stem from particular areas. Therefore, I would have assumed romance studies would come from those same areas.